Redemption; The Last Battle of the Civil War

      As I was reading this book for the class discussion, I found it to be the most interesting out of the three we have been assigned. This could have been the result of what Professor Weise had said about Lemann, the author, being a journalist, while the other two authors were historians.  I thought it was an interesting read and frankly I enjoyed it. 

      What I found to be the most interesting part of the entire book was the extended prologue.  The prologue consisted of the descriptive account of the Massacre in Colfax, Louisiana. The prologue really highlighted the fact that this was one of the bloodiest episodes of racial violence-killing over seventy black militiamen, during the Reconstruction Era. I thought Lemann did an adequate job of using this incident to start his book because this the Massacre led to the Supreme Court ruling United States vs. Cruikshank, which upheld states’ rights against federal authority to protect the freedom from white terrorist.

      Lemann’s book focuses on the Reconstruction of Mississippi. This was a bloody Reconstruction and Lemann writes that he believes it was truly the last battle of the Civil War. The Reconstruction was full of racial violence performed by white supremacist, which called themselves “redeemers.”  The so called “redeemers” disagreed with the “Negro” or “carpetbag” rule in the Post-Civil War South. As we learned in class “carpetbag” was the term used to describe Northern who had moved to the South during the Reconstruction Era.

      The book discusses the altercations between these “redeemers” and “carpetbaggers,” and it emphasizes the effect they had on the political world. As said before, the book portrays the authors thought that Reconstruction to be the true last battle of the Civil War, which suggests the Confederates won. The author tends to portray black men as victims instead of men defending their civil rights. Lastly, this book suggests that racist reaction crushed Reconstruction in the South, and I think I would have to agree. 

Lemann, Nicholas. Redemption, The Last Battle of the Civil War.  New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux,  2006.